CHAVEZ REELECTED, REMAINS IN POWER UNTIL 2019

CARACAS Venezuela, - Hugo Chávez was reelected for the third time as President and will remain in power until 2019. His main opponent Henrique Caprice obtained a 44.47 percent of the votes, according to the National Electoral Council, who assured that it was a “quiet electoral process” with the highest turnout in decades.

                                                           Hugo Cavez and Henrique Caprices

The 58-year-old Chavez took 54.42 percent of the vote, with 90 percent of the ballots counted, to 44.97 percent for young opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, official results showed.

Chavez's victory would extend his rule of the OPEC member state to two decades, though he is recovering from cancer and the possibility of a recurrence hangs over his political future.

• Jubilant supporters poured onto the streets of Caracas to celebrate the victory of a man who has near-Messianic status among Venezuela's poor, and there was relief too among leftist allies around the region - from Cuba to Bolivia - who rely on his oil-financed generosity.
• The mood was grim at Capriles' campaign headquarters, where opposition supporters broke into tears. The opposition will now have to regroup quickly for state elections in December.
• With political leaders urging voters to cast their ballot early in the morning and their own proclivity to do so, thousands stood in line before the polling stations before sunrise as the country prepared to choose its new president for the 2013-2019 period.
• Even though polling stations opened at 6 am (7:30 am in Argentina), some people had been standing in line since 3 am. After noon, it was estimated that half of the electorate had cast their ballot. 
• The National Electoral Council (CNE) officially opened the 13.810 polling stations in which almost 19 million Venezuelans would be able to vote. At 3 am, they sounded reveille all over the country in order to signal that people could now vote. It is a symbolic act by which Venezuelans are “called over” to come vote.
• For now, no incidents have been registered. Even though it is customary to vote early in the morning, due to yesterday’s poor weather conditions, Venezuelans were even more motivated to drive to the polling stations.
• Six candidates are competing for the president, although only two of them have any chance of success: president Hugo Chávez, looking to the reelected for the third time, and his main opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski.

 

Over 3000 international delegates have joined the electoral process, among them Carlos “Chacho” Alvarez who leads the Unasur Electoral Council.

The polls close at 6 pm in Venezuela (7:30 pm in Argentina), but it all ends when the last person standing in line gets to cast its ballot.

Even though people vote electronically, each voter gets one of their fingers painted blue, which means the person has already voted.

Source: Herald